Recycling lessons coming for greater Moncton residents

Solid waste corporation says people are still confused after 15 years

The Westmorland Albert Solid Waste Corp. is planning an education campaign to teach people in the Moncton area how to better sort their wet and dry garbage.

Andrew Wort, the corporation's general manager, says the wet-and-dry program has been in place for 15 years, but many people still aren't separating their garbage correctly.

"Somebody may take a tin can and rinse it out and say. 'Oh that's wet.' But it's not, it's really dry waste and we need that in the blue bag," Wort says.

"If it goes in the green bag none of it can be recycled because it goes through a composting plant that doesn't have any hand sorting. Here in the blue line, we hand sort the material and we use screens and magnetic separation to get materials off the lines."

Wort says the solid waste corporation will try to educate people about how to sort their green and blue bags properly.

The Westmorland Albert Solid Waste Corporation is launching a new education program to encourage people to sort their garbage properly. (CBC)

Geri MacIssac of Riverview says she has no problem sorting her garbage.

"I've been doing it for years so I have no problem whatsoever," she said.

"My husband kind of mixes things up once in a while."

Campaign to begin this fall

Wort says a flyer will be sent to every household this fall outlining the rules and there will also be some newspaper ads, radio ads and billboards along with a new Facebook page and a website.

He says municipalities will also be encouraged to step up enforcement of the rules during garbage collection.

"If you happen to come home and there's a big orange sticker on your blue bag or green bag you've probably put the wrong material in it and we need you to sort it properly," Wort says.

"So it's this kind of reinforcement we know is going to create some calls saying, 'What did we do wrong.' But if we don't get it right on the curbside it reduces the effectiveness of our program."

Wort says the corporation recycles between 45,000 and 50,000 tons of wet and dry garbage every year but he believes those numbers can be improved.

He hopes this fall's campaign will make recycling more user-friendly and encourage people to get it right.